GK Eduwrap – 8th March 2016

Grab your daily scoop of Current Affairs, from National to International, Sports, Business and Economics. Learn wisely and Gain better with Eduncle’s GK Eduwrap!

National – Across the India:

1. As per recently released report of International Labour Organization (ILO) titled-Women at Work: Trends 2016, gender equality still remains elusive in the workplace.

The report highlights trends in 2016 in 178 countries and it has been found that millions of women worldwide are not getting the same kind of quality, well-paying jobs as men.

In past 20 years, the gender gap in employment, wages and social protection has changed little. They continue to work longer hours per day than men in both paid and unpaid work.

Globally, women represent nearly 65% of people who have reached retirement age without any regular pension. They lose out in terms of social and retirement benefits since they earn less money.

2. Germany has decided to partner with India’s smart city programme and will help developing Kochi (Kerala), Bhubaneswar (Odisha) and Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) as smart cities.

It was announced by State Secretary in Germany’s Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, Gunther Adler in New Delhi at the second meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on Urban Development.

These three cities are among the top 20 cities selected by Urban Development Ministry which are to be developed as smart cities.

3. National carrier Air India successfully flew the World’s longest all-woman operated and supported flight from the national capital New Delhi to San Francisco (United States).

The flight was operated as part of International Women’s Day celebrations and travelled a distance of around 14,500 kilometres in close to 17 hours.

The non-stop flight to San Francisco took off on 6th March 2016 from New Delhi.

The flight was under the command of Kshamta Bajpayee and Shubhangi Singh. They were supported by First Officers Ramya Kirti Gupta and Amrit Namdhari.

Sports:

1. Maria Sharapova, former world number one female tennis player has revealed that she failed a drugs test at the Australian Open.

Due to this failure the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has provisionally suspended her till further action from Tennis for violating Anti-Doping Rule.

She has been tested positive for meldonium, a substance that has been added in the forbidden list by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on 1 January 2016.

Awards & Recognition:

She was bestowned with this award for her contribution in the field of agriculture and to increase productivity and rural prosperity by Union Minister of Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh.

Currently she is Chairman of Charutar Arogya Mandal.

She had served as Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) from 1998 to 2014.

She had played a pivotal role in the implementation of NDDB’s Operation Flood which was the world’s biggest dairy development program that had transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world’s largest milk producer by surpassing the USA in 1998.

Memorandum of Understanding:

1. Haryana Government has signed 11 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) involving a total investment of Rs 18,159 crores with different companies.

These MoUs were signed in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on the first day of the two-day ‘Happening Haryana Global Investors’ Summit-2016’ held in Gurgaon.

2. Telangana and Maharashtra Governments have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) to set up an inter-state water board construct 5 barrages across Godavari and Pen Ganga rivers.

The MoU was signed at a high level meeting held in Mumbai in which Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took part.

Setting up of an inter-state water board on Godavari projects will end decades of discord between the two States on utilisation of water in the river Godavari and its tributaries.

Science & Technology:

1. Indian Railways has formed a new Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to implement the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Bullet Train project.

The entity has been named the National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC) Limited.

The high speed bullet rain project aims to introduce trains running at operating speeds over 320 kilometers per hour and maximum speed of 350kmph.

The project will take about seven years to complete after the awarding of the contract at an estimated to cost 97,636 crore rupees.

Important Dates:

1. Every year International Women’s Day is being observed on 8th March across the globe to highlight the achievements of women while calling for greater equality.

2016 theme declared by United Nations was “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality”.

It reflects acceleration of the 2030 Agenda, building momentum for the effective implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals.

International Women’s Day was first observed as a popular event after 1977 after the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has proclaimed to observe March 8 as the UN Day for Women’s Rights and World Peace.